The Columbia Missourian’s Higher Education Blog

Clintons Keep Competing for the College Vote, But Will it Matter in the Long Run?

The old adage that quitters never win and winners never quit certainly could apply in Hillary Clinton’s campaign’s effort to reach college-age voters in the 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The numbers haven’t changed all that much since the start of the campaign. Barack Obama still holds a comfortable margin among voters aged 18-24 in many major polls, and the New York Times mentioned in an article last week that around 60 percent of voters in primaries under 30 have chosen the Illinois junior senator. (For what it’s worth, the article talks above young people influencing their parents on occasion in this year’s election — interesting read.)

But you can’t say the Clintons aren’t trying.

Both Hillary’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, and her daughter, Chelsea, have visited the MU campus at different points during the campaign. Chelsea visited January 28th, and Bill spoke February 2nd. Furthermore, the Washington Postreported Thursdaythat Chelsea’s visit that day to Villanova (Pa.) University marked her 100th campus visit since the start of the campaign.

Truth be told, the efforts aren’t seeming to make much of a dent in the pollsters’ numbers. But if Hillary were to be named the Democrats’ nominee for president, will the Clintons’ attempts at outreach spur younger voters to her side? If Obama is nominated, will the young voters come out in full force in the 2008 election? (Predicting the 18-24 turnout is akin to forecasting the weather a week in advance, in my opinion). Even though the interest for this term’s election seems to be at an all-time high, what is the true pulse of younger voters? How much more beyond a general interest do they really care?

While we’re always interested in reader feedback here at U.Town, I’m especially interested to hear both younger and older voices in this case. Chime in and help spark some conversation!

(I can type 90 words per minute, and there are probably thousands of copies on the Internet indicating the content of this post. Moreover, there are innumerable copies in very many countries around the world.)
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“If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Off the top of my head—it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.